HeatherGreer

A very nice comment on "The Concertina Diaires" tutor (Heather Greer). A buyer, who is from Ireland but now living in C&E Europe, while waiting for his copy of the book to arrive, worked his way through the sample pages from the book that are up on our website, www.IrishTunebook.com. "I have read your sample pages [on your website], and from these alone I have learned more, and more quickly, than all the other books that I have on this subject put together. Please feel free to use this comment in your advertisments." Colin A. Just thought I'd pass that nice comment along. Oh, and in the coming week I aim to post downloadable music, with 'fingerings' for 30-button Anglo (Wheatstone but you can modify as necessary for Jeffries), two nice jigs in D major that go together very nicely as a complementary 2-D set: 'Seamus Connolly's' and the lovely, twisty-turny, 'Rosemary Lane'. If you want to really major out on an all-D set, adding in Tobin's Jig makes for a good third jig to include.

Interesting discussion, which I've just come across. When I started playing (Irish trad on Anglo) concertina, it seemed to me that learning scales would be a good idea. But it didn't offer a lot of help to me in learning the best way of playing an actual tune, while at the same time both managing bellows and, importantly, avoiding chopping (using the same finger for two consecutive notes). The difficulty is, as everyone knows, that with the Anglo there's an almost infinite number of (well, quite a few) combinations of buttons and pushes and pulls that can be used to play a given scale. I really only started making serious headway when I concentrated on learning tunes and finding the best buttons to use for a given phrase - 'best' meaning easiest, most rhythm-friendly, most bellows-friendly, and chopping-avoiding. Admittedly some tunes call for a phrase that's just playing notes up and down part of a scale, and if that phrase is fast it means getting your fingers to learn alternating between left and right hand sides. But the great thing about learning the keyboard through tunes rather than scales is that (a) you do actually learn TUNES; ( you quickly learn the various alternative ways of playing a given sequence; and © your fingers gain a knowledge of the keyboard that's FLEXIBLE. With regard to point ©, in the tutor I ended up writing ("The Concertina Diaries", Heather Greer), the approach is to learn to play the Anglo concertina in the same way a person learns to speak a language, realising that there are many ways of 'saying' the same thing. That works for me, anyway, and seems to work for a lot of others who are setting out to learn to play. Of course, with Irish trad you're generally only interested in G and D major (and occasionally A), and G and E minor (mostly in the Dorian mode, making each of these minor keys analogous to C and D respectively). I think that, starting out to learn to play a tune you know in a different scale (say, F), it's a bit of a no-brainer to 'get' where the various notes on the key are, before starting to learn a tune. But you can go a long, long way for a session - and spend a lifetime at it - by mastering the gentle art of playing in the home keys of the tunes: G or D maj, or A or E min.

EDGLEY 'HERITAGE' CONCERTINA FOR SALE. A 'Heritage' concertina for sale (located in Ireland). As Frank Edgley writes on his website of these instruments: "These are our top-of-the-line concertinas. These concertinas are made in the traditional way, with separate hardwood reedpans. The reeds are top quality traditional concertina reeds with steel tongues and brass reed shoes and are very similar to the reeds used by Wheatstone in the late 1800s and early 1900s ---the Golden Age of Concertinas. This concertina has ebony ends with stainless steel end plates. As you'll see in the photos, I customised mine, fitting what I think are nice bellows papers to decorate it, and thicker, gilt-decorated leather handles, which in my opinion provides an easier grip. The instrument is a standard Wheatstone, except that I ordered it with two C# buttons: a push C# on the first button on the RHS top row, and a pull C# beside it; I like it that way, but they could easily be reversed if it's a Jeffreys layout you're after. The concertina is in more or less perfect condition, and it plays sweetly and quickly. I'm selling it reluctantly, because I do love it, but I have a genuine reason for selling it on - definitely NOT because I don't like it! Email me (heather.cleggan@gmail.com) or phone +353-(0)95-44845 if you would like to discuss

Sorry...don't know how to remove this posting, but just to say that the Suttner I was advertising has been sold.

HI there I'm offering a 31-button Suttner C/G A2 model, Jeffries tuned concertina for sale. It has polished ebony ends, seven bellows folds, and very pretty gilt bellows papers. Sice it has been played, it's nice and loose; but it hasn't been played very much and is in 'as new' condition. The 31st button is a C drone (it comes along with a low D reed and brass reed plate should anyone want that). I have a genuine reason for selling it. I and it are based in the west of Ireland, but it can be sent anywhere in the world at little cost. It happens to be the concertina featured on the front cover of the tutor "The Concertina Diaries", and since that's the only photo I have at the moment, I'm attaching that picture. But I can take more photos of the instrument and send them to anyone interested in buying. If interested, maybe mail me privately, at heather.cleggan@gmail.com Heather

Hello there I have a Suttner A2 model, seven-bellows, Jeffries-tuned 31-button (the 31st button is the C drone which Juergen supplies as standard on the A2) C/G with polished ebony ends and very pretty gilt bellows papers. In Connemara, Ireland. If you'd like to mail me about it, here's my address: heather.cleggan@gmail.com . It's the concertina featured on the front cover of the tutor "The Concertina Diaries", and since that's the only photo I have currently, I'm attaching that to this message. If you mail me privately, I can quickly take further photos of it and send them to you. It's a nice instrument. Best wishes Heather